ADVENTURES OF A TUG

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 241, 1 March 1913, Page 1 (Supplement)

ADVENTURES OF A TUG

Thrilling details of the voyage from Falmouth to Rio de Janeiro of a small steam tug were told when, on Tuesday, January 7, the master (Captain -L W. Carver) of the boat returned to England by the steamer Orita. The tug, of only about four tons register, was built at Falmouth for towing canal barges out to steamers calling at Rio. When within nineteen miles of Cape Finistere the full force of the gale was encountered. "It was one of the worst gales I have ever been through." said the captain. "On October 1 we shipped one gigantic wave which carried away the wheel shelter, wrecked the only compass we possessed, and smashed the wheel. The second engineer had four lingers torn away, the man at the wheel had his ribs'badly injured, and one of the crew sustained a fractured thigh. "At last we got to Brest, During the voyage I was kept at the partlyrepaired wheel steering with my feet for three days and three nights. The only food I could get consisted of a lew biscuits which were handed up to me. "On October 12 T began the second portion of the voyage without my chief ollicer and with a foreign crew. The old crew had gone below, so 1 locked them in. and told them that if was a case of -no work no food." 1 did allow them one biscuit, each a day. Within thirty miles of TencrilVe the fuel again gave' out. but we were sighted by the Spanish mail boat Luis ViVeu-. and this vessel spared us a ton of coal, which carried us into (he port. ■T got twenty-! wo tons of coal, but lost my second crew by desertion, and as the'men who had previously refused to work also got ashore, the cook and I navigated the lug to St. Vincent, where we oldaiued another set of men. all foreigners, none of whom had ever been to sea before. We got to I'ernambuco. and arrived safely at Kio de danicro on I December 12."